William Dudley Named New York Fed Chief

WASHINGTON — William Dudley was promoted Tuesday to the top position at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he'll be on the front lines of the government's efforts to end the worst credit and financial crises since the 1930s.

As president of the New York Fed, Dudley will be a full-time member of the Federal Open Market Committee. That group, which includes Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, sets interest rates and makes other policy decisions.

Dudley also will be in charge of carrying out the Fed's market operations to implement its policy decisions. The 56-year-old replaces Timothy Geithner, who was sworn in Monday as President Barack Obama's Treasury secretary.

"The New York Fed, standing at the critical intersection of the financial markets and the banking system, has a leading role to play in assisting in the reform of the architecture of the U.S. and global financial system and to ensure that was has transpired over the past year can never occur again," Dudley said in a statement.

Dudley, who joined the New York Fed in January 2007, had been executive vice president of the Fed's markets group and manager of the system open market account for the FOMC. He oversaw domestic open market operations and foreign exchange trading operations, among other duties.

Before joining the Fed, Dudley was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co. and had served for a decade as its chief U.S. economist. He also had worked at Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. and served as an economist at the Fed in Washington.

He received his doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, and a bachelor's degree from New College in Sarasota, Fla., in 1974.